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Dinner Date

In a field commonly associated with violence, Stout Games joins developers who are at work to make games which are about more than bullets: in Stout Games’ Dinner Date, the player becomes the subconsciousness of Julian Luxemburg and experiences Julian’s thoughts becoming more troubled as he is being stood up for date. The trailer sheds light on the plot and gives a glimpse of how Dinner Date uses the medium games to make a character portrait.
The trailer shows the perfect preparation for a date – the joy of anticipation and the build-up of the cuisine for a ‘dinner at my place.’ But the excitement of preparation finds a bitter continuation when the beautiful girl does not arrive on time and the ticking of the clock grows louder and louder.
„A lot goes on in the mind of a man being stood up,” the trailer suggests. There are many personal and intimate thoughts someone being stood up would not readily tell his friends: being stood up is a test of personality and so the trailer continues: „find out what it is like by sitting back and becoming the subconsciousness of Julian Luxemburg.”
Dinner Date takes a novel approach, turning what could be a play or film into a game by allowing the player to act as Julian’s subconsciousness. The actions they can perform are typical and essential: looking at the clock, tapping the table, reluctantly starting eat – and drinking plentiful glasses of red wine. As as Julian’s thoughts wander to his work, his friends and the status of his love-life, it becomes clear that the intimacy of the thoughts combined with the actions make Julian come alive in a way not shown before.
Dinner Date fits in the current trend of making games with more realistic subjects and themes, combining them with increasingly changing forms of interaction.
A large set of animations is used to bring Julian to life in his realistically rendered 3d kitchen. His musings are fully voiced and emphasized by a high-quality score composed specifically for Dinner Date.
More information on: Stout Games

Dinner Date music
The music in Dinner Date can be considered as minimal jazz and tries to establish a mood which helps to connect to the main character of Dinner Date, Julian Luxemburg. While the story develops, the music gradually shifts from a diegetic ambience-music towards a more sinister atmosphere.